Kane (Big Media) Watch: The Missing Link

I love it when other people do my work for me.

From Where I Sit takes a look at Eugene Kane's most recent column and "compliments" the columnist's fine fence-sitting abilities.

Nice work, Elliot.

And it frees me up to comment on something I've been pondering lately.

After quoting Kane's assertion that conservatives are comparing the recent partisian speeches made at Coretta Scott King's funeral to treason, Elliot writes:

I guess that’s one of the advantages of writing on paper instead of
online.

In a blog, we’d expect the author to link to the posts comparing the
liberal’s funeral tackiness to treason.

The thing is that these days most news outlets traditionally "on paper" are also online, including the Journal Sentinel. In theory, when the maintstream media brings us the news it should be the facts and just the facts, so readers would consider it to be the source. But when it comes to overtly opinionated columnists like Eugene Kane, why don't the papers (or the authors themselves) dedicate a little time in their online versions to providing links supporting the assertions they make?

Part of what makes blogs so appealing is that they allow their authors to easily cite those materials they write about. In fact, some blogs go so far as to define every word written. It could be argued that the power of the hyperlink is a major contributor to the credibility of many blogs. Likewise, not linking to your source material is the electronic equivalent to forgetting to staple that bibliography to your college research paper.

As one professor once commented on a paper I wrote, "Where did these facts come from?"

Of course, journalists like Kane are bound to argue their years of experience and reputation are all the credibility we should need.

I bet Dan Rather wishes that were true.

So in the tradition of blogging, I'd like to link you to this column on blogging by Eugene Kane where he writes:

New studies show that Internet sites run by newspapers are growing rapidly. JSOnline, in fact, attracts more than 2 million unique visitors per month, and 50 million page views per month.

If the battle for new consumers of information and commentary is to be fully engaged, much of it will happen on the Internet.

The day when newspapers are no longer on paper is inevitable. Maybe a little lesson in HTML is in order.

There are probably 2 million readers who'd really appreciate it.